NASA looking for a few amateur astronomers

Ever dreamed of doing work for NASA? Now's your chance. The space agency is looking for a few good amateur astronomers to help them discover near-Earth objects and study their characteristics.

The citizen project is called 'Target Asteroids!" NASA hopes the amateur astronomers will help them better understand the objects, including their position, motion, rotation and changes in the intensity of the light they emit.

The reason for the project is to discover what its Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx for short, will encounter after its scheduled launch is 2016.

The data collected during 'Target Asteroids!' will be used to compare with actual mission data.

"For well over 10 years, amateurs have been important contributors in the refinement of orbits for newly discovered near-Earth objects," said Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission at the University of Arizona in Tucson.